Head in the clouds
by themanonthemoon
Summary: "Doctor, who's that woman under the TARDIS?" Clara asked. "Oh her, well, she, " the Doctor scratched his head, finding nouns and appropriate adjectives. How do you describe River to a normal person anyway? "She's a TARDIS troll. " I keep coming up with these scenarios on how Clara would meet River. Ever wonder what would happen then?


Head in the clouds 

There was an unusual silence in the TARDIS. The whizzing and beeping and constant humming came to an apparent pause. The Doctor was standing surprisingly still.

Clara sauntered over to his direction and stared at the screen he was so intently looking at. He didn't even blink. Frowning, she stood behind him to get a better perspective, but much to her avail, she was simply staring at a bunch of floating numbers. Fading and disappearing hypnotically on the screen. Was it some sort of message? A morse code from someone in trouble?

"Doctor, what do those numbers mean? "

The Doctor didn't seem to listen.

"Doctor!"

The Doctor tore his eyes away from the screen, focusing blearily at her. "Hmmm... huh?" he responded dumbly.

Clara touched his forehead with the back of her hand and asked "Are you having a fever?" a fleeting thought suddenly told her that Time lords don't usually get fevers.

"No, I'm fine," he said quickly and then more sincerely, "Don't worry, Clara," and he reached out to hug her.

She slipped away before his arms could encircle her and said feistily, "I don't do hugs - only kisses."

The Doctor suppressed the urge to sigh heavily and roll his old eyes. He tried not to remember Amy. And how different yet perfectly similar she was to Clara... especially in terms of too-close-for-comfort advances.

Clara leaned against the rail, almost falling backwards in apparent boredom as she noticed the Doctor had returned to his trance.

"It will only last a minute."

"What?" Clara whirled around, her eyes sweeping the coast, she looked at the Doctor, he hadn't moved. She rushed down the stairs towards the source of the voice. "Who said that?"

"Shhh..." a golden cloud of hair chastised. "He already knows I'm here anyway."

"Then why are we whispering?" asked Clara curiously.

"For the fun of it."

Clara was taken aback, or more appropriately by surprise.

"Dare I ask, who you are? The last time I asked that question to someone, he said he was the Doctor. That was a shocker."

The blonde woman with corkscrew curls rocked on her swing. River's laughter came out in sly chortles. "Dare I say, spoilers?"

At this rate, Clara didn't care for first impressions anymore.

"Somehow I saw that coming. Why does he do that?"

River looked up to see the soles of her husband's shoes standing still and symmetrically apart above her. "He thinks. And for a man his age, there are lots and lots of things to think about, especially now."

The way she dragged the _now_ in her sentence. Clara suddenly had an urge to ask her again who the hell she was. And what she meant. Her Victorian curiosity was burning as much as when she first met the Doctor. It needed to be satisfied - immediately.

"He had friends before me didn't he?"

"A good many."

"Are you one of them?"

River was disgusted at the word friend. She preferred soul mate. Or a more powerful word like wife. Instead, River settled with, "You could say that. Or.. You could ask him but...don't expect an answer."

Clara's fists clenched involuntarily. Her eyes narrowed at the mysterious woman before her. River noticed.

"You've got quite a curiosity there and.. just enough patience," she inferred. "It will help when you're companions with a man whose hobby is to constantly drop things."

Clara raised an eyebrow. "Yeah," was all she said as she eyed the woman testily. _It's as if she memorized the Doctor on the back of her hand. How did she get in here anyway? As far as Clara checked, there's only one front door in this blue box._ It frustrated her when River simply smiled back ambiguously. She was so hard to deduce.

"How many days has it been for you?" River asked, suddenly realizing they had never properly introduced her self.

Clara's eyes never left hers. There was a slight hostility in them. River couldn't blame her for being insecure. Perhaps the introductions could wait.

"Three. Just getting used to things around here. The kitchen is nice and so is the helipad - whatever that is."

Let it be the Doctor to introduce a helipad to a working class woman of the 19th century.

"I have no idea," River said. She was going to have talk with the Doctor. He was going to need a helicopter.

There was momentary silence until Clara smiled, as if a pleasant memory had conveniently popped into her mind, her eyes closed dreamily and a satisfied breath escaped her lips. Oh, River recognized that look very well.

"We went to the museum in the future! " The companion began, "And I saw those irons! The ones you fill in with coal and light with fire! I felt like a grandma in there!"

_Story of my life_, River felt like saying but kept her lips pursed instead, intently listening to the companions tales. The stories she told sounded familiar, amazing to any young girl that wanted to see the stars and live on clouds. River knew, she used to be one of them.

The younger woman continued, in her dazed state, "it was like being in a dream. he's been everywhere hasn't he?"

The blonde lady thrust herself forward, gaining momentum for another round of swinging.

"Yes, and bless, if he had the time, he would have a number of stories to tell!"

"That's right!" Clara jumped, once again giddy with excitement. It was infectious, even River felt a tingling in her toes. It was a familiar feeling - one you naturally adopted after traveling with the Doctor, even for only 3 days.

"Oh he told me few unbelievable ones, all right! Honestly, I have yet to believe them properly. The Weeping Angels? I hope they don't look as frightening as I imagine them to be. See it to believe it, that's what I always say. "

River shook her head patronizingly.

"Dear girl, after a few adventures, the snow men would seem like ice cream on a sunny day. "

Clara shook her head unbelievingly. It was impossible to know so much of the universe. Absolutely impossible to see everything all at once! But he could take her everywhere, she knew that. He could do impossible things.

"Huh, he's mad and ridiculous and almost absolutely entertaining. And he hardly realizes it."

River instinctively raised an eyebrow as she listened. This was new.

"In fact, when I first met him, he lived on a cloud! "

"Yes, you'll find he usually does," River smirked as she kicked her feet in the air, aiming high to the floor of the console above her. She threw her head back to look up at him, hoping to meet his fond gaze. She scowled when she once again met the undivided attention of the soles of his shoes. "That man…" she muttered.

Huffing a breath from all her previous exertion, Clara followed River's gaze.

"So he's not really solving a code or something? Those numbers don't mean anything do they?"

"The point is, they make him look serious," River smiled as her swinging slowed to an eventual halt.

"Right, Doctor?!"

As if on cue, the engines whirred back to life. The humming resumed. The squeaking of his shoes against the floor commenced. "Clara'O'Clara!"

"On my way Doctor!" she waved at River in mock salute and hurried up the stairs.

"Who's that woman under the TARDIS?" Clara asked. Almost simultaneously (no surprise on River's part), a CLANG! noise reverberated around the walls of the console room. The Doctor had dropped something.

From under the console, where every surrounding interior was purposefully built to echo loud annoying noises, River felt that her eardrums must have died when she heard only the monotonous beeping of nothingness. It was only until she heard the Doctor 's voice when she knew that she had braved potential internal hemorrhage.

She could just picture him wringing those skinny wrists in that nervous way of his. She could also, at that point, imagine a clear image of her hands slapping his baby cheeks.

"Oh her, well, she, " the Doctor scratched his head, finding nouns and appropriate adjectives. How do you describe River to normal person anyway?

"She's a TARDIS troll. " The doctor decided finally.

Clara raised a perfectly poised eyebrow. "A TARDIS troll?"

The Doctor loosened his collar_. Oh the lies._ "Mmhmm..."

Clara folded her arms across her chest. Her foot tapped painfully slowly to one side. Every part of her screamed, _Oh really?_ in that infuriating sort of way. Although, no one could compare to River's sassy stand offs. _That woman…_

The Doctor growled and turned away, waving his white flag in defeat. Clara could distinctly hear him mutter,

"Lurking around in the dark with her…her," Unable to find any more ridiculously untrue things to say, he decided to be honest, "... Incredibly sexy hair."

He bent to pick up the screwdriver he had dropped. It was a project he had been working on for some time now.

Upon noticing him, River stopped swinging. The Doctor knocked discretely on the floor. She looked up. He smiled at her, his eyes twinkling just like hers did a few moments ago. _Thank you_, his eyes told her. She smiled back, mouthing 'Don't mention it sweetie,' before glaring dangerously at him for his previous comment, blowing a kiss and disappearing in a static flash. The Doctor smiled like a Cheshire cat or rather like a little boy after being kissed by a girl he'd always liked.

Scrambling to his feet, he flipped his fringe, cleared his throat and straightened his bow tie for good measure. "Oswin!" He shouted this time - watching as she bounded to the console.

"Where's the sexy troll?" she asked him.

"A safe distance from the TARDIS," he informed once the red heat in his cheeks died down.

"She's no stranger."

"Definitely not," he answered, pulling a lever behind her.

"But I am."

The Doctor looked at her.

"That's my job. I take strangers with me and open their eyes."

"Indeed you do. You also make strangers feel like friends. You make them happy. My feet can never find the ground now. I think I've grown taller."

Grinning like a fool, the Doctor placed his hands on his hips, smirking proudly at her. "Head in the clouds, feet floating - what do you think of all this?"

Clara smiled, looking into his eyes rather than gaping at the TARDIS like she did just days before,

"Its all pretty amazing. "

After that, the Doctor thought he would never be able to stop smiling.

Perfect absolutely perfect -

River, a companion, his TARDIS…

Indeed, everything was alive again.


End file.
